


Nightmare, Nightmare!

by SaxSpieler



Category: Runescape
Genre: Fic Trade, Gen, One Shot, a bit of comedy as well, light fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-26
Updated: 2016-06-26
Packaged: 2018-07-18 09:43:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,911
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7309912
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SaxSpieler/pseuds/SaxSpieler
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which a philosophical (and sometimes threatening) muspah familiar causes mass panic.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Nightmare, Nightmare!

**Author's Note:**

  * For [AceTrainerAlicia](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AceTrainerAlicia/gifts).



> My half of a fic trade with AceTrainerAlicia, involving her World Guardian, Jaina, having a nightmare muspah familiar out for divination help. Chaos ensues, however, when it introduces itself to Azzanadra, Wahisietel, and Akthanakos.
> 
> Had fun writing this, especially the muspah's personality and the scene in Wahi's house - it was also my first time writing someone else's OC. Hope I did Jaina justice, and I hope you enjoy!

“Human?”

“Yes?”

“Do you ever wonder if you are just a dream?”

Jaina hummed thoughtfully, her feet shuffling slightly in the sand as she turned to activate yet another luminous wisp. As light pooled at her feet, forming a whirling, sparking spring of light, she began to harvest it, coaxing formless memories and semi-solid energy from within. 

“I can’t say that I have. Why do you ask?”

Just as she had done for the past hour or so, she passed the collected memories on to her temporary companion. Though less than a half the size of the creatures she had fought to be able to summon it in the first place, the muspah familiar was no less fierce at first glance, what with its multiple bladed appendages and its needle-like teeth.

It was admittedly a bit frightening at first, though it had quickly won Jaina over once it had begun waxing philosophically about the nature of one's existence. 

It was cute. In its own way, at least.

“I ask,” it began, its pincers clicking together, “because muspah like me only exist because we are dreamed into being by Mah. Do you wonder if your life is the same? If the sum of your memories, will, and experiences are little more than the mental musings of an unconscious being magnitudes more powerful than yourself?”

“You’re very well spoken for a nightmare, you know,” Jaina chuckled, passing off the last of the memories to the muspah and turning her attention back to the divine spring. “To answer your question, though, I’ve never really given it that much thought. But, if I myself am a dream, does that make you a dream within a dream?”

“Perhaps. Or, perhaps, we are two parts of the same dream. Perhaps Mah herself is a dream. Perhaps we are all simultaneously the dreams of another and the dreamers of universes so vast and interlocking that to ponder on their existence would be beyond any comprehensive ability, mortal or otherwise.”

“I’ll have to introduce you to Wahisietel at some point. You two would have quite the conversation.”

The muspah didn’t respond. Curious, Jaina glanced around and found that it was no longer by her side, but had scuttled off a ways and was now hacking and slashing at the skin of a nearby cactus.

“KILL! RIP! TEAR! ANNIHILATE!”

“What...what are you doing to that cactus?”

“I WILL CARVE IT TO SHREDS AND FEAST UPON ITS FLESH!”

“Why?”

“KILL! KILL! KILL!” With that, it circled around to the far side of the cactus and out of sight, the distance muffling its assault on the plant.

Sighing and shrugging, Jaina turned back to the wisp and continued harvesting.

“Quite the conversation, indeed...”

As the minutes passed, the muspah’s rantings grew quieter and quieter, eventually disappearing against the desert air. Jaina, however, payed no mind.

_It’ll be pulled back. Eventually._

Feeling a full load of divine memories weighing heavily on her mind, she made her way over to the rift and began to deposit them, pulling the stored memories from the currently hidden muspah familiar as well. Some were given back to the anima mundi, and she swore she could feel the world sigh in relief as its wounds were ever so slightly healed. Others, however, were traded for more bits of that semi-solid, luminous energy that had countless uses.

She pooled the energy between her hands and, for a moment, just admired the way it swirled around itself, emitting that calming, golden glow.

“Beautiful.”

Her head snapped up at the sudden voice, and she whirled around, nearly dropping the energy in the process.

Standing there was a familiar sight: a rugged-looking, red-headed man - a simple archeologist by his wardrobe, yet something far more ancient and powerful by the gleam in his eyes. 

“Oh, Azzanadra!” She jogged over, giving him a quick hug and giggling as his beard tickled her cheek. Drawing back, she held the chunk of energy out for him to see, gazing at it once again. “Yes, it is quite beautiful - I admit, I could stare at this stuff all day.”

A hand wrapped itself around hers, drawing her attention back to its owner.

“While I can’t say that I disagree with you, I was not referring to the divine energy,” he purred, an almost sly grin working its way across his face.

Even under the desert heat, she felt her cheeks flush in response.

“Ah, what brings you here from the temple?” 

“I admit that your adventurous restlessness may have rubbed off on me a bit.” His hand went to Jaina’s hair, and his smile softened as the strands twined between his fingers. “Besides, I thought you might like some company.”

“Well, I’m hardly alone,” she said, returning his smile. She turned around, motioning to the wisp colony. “I have my...huh...”

Jaina looked, but saw nothing except sand, wisps, and cacti.

“Oh, where is it now?” she mumbled.

“Where is what?”

At that moment, she noticed a slight tugging at the back of her mind: the feeling she got whenever a summoning familiar strayed too far from her side, or vice versa.

A recall spell.

_I guess ‘eventually’ is ‘now.’_

Suddenly, she found herself being hurried away from where she stood, her ears ringing from spine-tingling shouts of alarm.

_“MUSPAH!”_

_Oh dear…_

Quickly, she gathered her senses and was met with the sight of Azzanadra, now in his Mahjarrat form, squaring off against the two-foot-tall muspah familiar.

She almost chuckled, but the humor of the sight was quickly washed away by Azzanadra’s palpable fear, which frightened her in turn.

He was shaking. Shivering. Eyes wide, he looked more like a startled animal than the proud pontiff Jaina knew.

“Azzanadra?” She carefully stepped up to him, taking his hand in hers and gently squeezing it. “Calm down, it’s just a fa-”

In an instant, she was surrounded by the familiar shadowy blocks of an ancient teleport spell, and she could feel the air ripping with frigid magic as she was pulled skyward. Through the thaumaturgical barrier, she saw Azzanadra raising a hand, ice sparking from his fingertips.

“No, Azzanadra, wait!” She struggled against the spell, determined to break up the confrontation. “Don’t hurt it!”

Suddenly, the sight blinked out, and the familiar landscape of the digsite replaced it, the force of the teleport sending her stumbling backwards and onto her rear.

_Great,_ she thought, sitting up waiting for her vertigo to subside, just great. _My divination work has been interrupted, Azzanadra is now thoroughly freaked out, and he’s probably gone and killed my familiar-_

The recall spell tugged at her mind once again.

_Or not…_

“GRAH! Human, why did you have to go and interrupt me?” 

Jaina glanced over at the obviously disappointed muspah that was now perched beside her and sighed, only partly in relief.

“Let’s just ignore the fact that I was forcibly teleported and you were dragged along for the ride…well, at least no one was hurt.”

She stood, dusting herself free of dirt, and mulled over the situation. Azzanadra would no doubt show up soon, his nerves and the muspah’s aggression starting the whole fiasco over again. She would have to, simultaneously, curb both those things in order to make things right.

The latter was easy - she had enough summoning experience under her belt to control an unruly familiar if she put her mind to it.

Calming Azzanadra would be another matter entirely.

“What does it matter? I didn’t even get the chance to tear that dream apart!”

“Honestly, even though you scared him, I doubt you could even tear the hem of his robes,” she grumbled. 

“Couldn’t I? Nightmares are far more powerful than dreams in the minds of their creators, after all…” The muspah’s pincers clicked together again thoughtfully, and she was once again reminded of her idea to introduce the creature to Wahisietel.

_Wahisietel._

_There’s an idea._

She dug into her bag and extracted her desert amulet, willing it to teleport her to Nardah.

_I’ll explain the situation to Wahisietel - his testimony should help calm Azzanadra down._

***

As Jaina steadied herself from the after effects of the literal whirlwind teleport, she turned to the muspah, catching its attention.

“Alright. I need you to be calm, pleasant, and philosophical these next few minutes. You need to make a good impression on my friend, here, so go put on your best face and I’ll introduce you to him, alright?”

“Very well,” the muspah said, scuttling around the exterior of Wahisietel’s - _well, Ali’s_ \- house on the outskirts of Nardah.

Jaina smoothed her hair and made sure the rest of her was free from dirt before heading to the front door, noting the camel that idled not twenty feet from the entrance.

_Akthanakos must be here too, then,_ she thought, continuing her approach.

_Alright, this had better work…_

Not a moment after the thought crossed her mind, a pair of hoarse screams stopped her in her tracks.

_Not again…_

She rushed to the door, and, finding it ajar, dashed inside.

The chaos within was something that Zamorak himself would’ve been proud of.

The air was thick with shouts, snarls, and hisses.

The normally carefully placed furniture had been overturned, papers and trinkets scattered every which way.

Books whizzed through space, accompanied by unstable, spitting fireballs, all aimed at the screaming and posturing muspah at the center of the room.

“KILL! KILL! KILL!”

“AKTHANAKOS, STOP! MY BOOKS ARE NOT AMMO!” Wahisietel crouched behind an overturned side table, trying desperately to coax a very frantic and floundering Akthanakos down from atop a nearby bookcase.

“GET AWAY! GET AWAY!” Akthanakos seized another book and hurled it down at the muspah, which batted it away with a snarl.

“I’LL RIP YOU APART AND FEAST ON YOUR ENTRAILS!”

Jaina groaned. Whatever that was, it certainly wasn’t the muspah’s ‘best face,’ for sure. She watched as a particularly large volume found its way into Akthanakos’ hands and Wahisietel’s eyes widened in horror.

“THAT IS A FIRST EDITION, DO NOT THROW THAT!” Wahisietel sprung out from his hiding place, seizing hold of the bookcase and trying to climb up.

“TEAR! REND! PAIN! DEATH!”

“TAKE THIS!” Akthanakos ignored Wahisietel’s attempts to save at least part of his book collection and raised his arms, taking aim at the muspah.

“STOP!”

The bookcase suddenly crumbled under both Mahjarrats’ combined weight, sending them to the floor amidst a cascade of wood and paper.

Jaina flinched at the sight, guilt plucking at her mind.

She had to fix this.

“ALL OF YOU, CALM DOWN!” she hollered, stepping forward into the fray. “It’s just a summoning familiar - it’s not going to hurt you!” Her voice went unheard, and the chaos continued as the Mahjarrat fought their way out from under the destroyed bookcase, both of them tossing bits of splintered wood at the muspah familiar.

Reassurance now would do nothing. Not until Wahisietel and Akthanakos calmed down.

_I have to get my familiar out of this house, or else the whole thing’s going to come down on our heads._

Jaina did the first thing she could think of.

She ran. North. Away from Nardah.

Not fifteen seconds out the door, she felt the recall spell tug again and saw the familiar materialize in her peripheral vision.

Not sixteen seconds out the door, and she realized the mistake she had just made.

“IT’S AFTER JAINA!”

_Oh no…_

Fireballs struck the sand, narrowly missing her.

“STOP, AKTHANAKOS!”

Wahisietel’s cry accomplished nothing. 

Another erratically-thrown fireball shot over her head, then another - she felt them singe her hair.

As she scrambled across the sand, she shot a glare at the muspah scuttling beside her.

“I thought I told you to be calm and pleasant!” she roared, her lungs screaming for air.

“I was, up until the orange one started screaming! After that, I just couldn’t help myself!”

She bit back a cry of frustration as another fireball seared past her shoulder. The next one struck the sand just behind her heels, sending her stumbling to the ground with a cry.

Quickly, she rolled over, fumbled for some runes, and conjured an ice wall to block any more of Akthanakos’ panic shots. As she steadied her breathing and watched the muspah familiar turn around and advance on the two Mahjarrat from around the edge of the ice, she silently berated herself, clenching her fists until her knuckles cracked.

_I should’ve just dismissed it back at the house! Time to fix this._

Stepping out carefully from behind her ice wall, she raised a hand and took aim at the muspah, mentally feeling for the almost elastic, thaumaturgical strings that bound the familiar to her and to the material realm.

_Find the strings, take them in hand, and break them._

A misaimed fireball impacted against the wall just inches from her face, sending her careening back behind the ice. Shaking, she tried to steady herself, tamping down the panic now sparking her nerves.

_Or...or, not…_

She heard Wahisietel loudly berate Akthanakos again before the air shifted, crackling with the familiar magic of a teleport spell.

“ENOUGH!” Azzanadra’s voice boomed out over the commotion, and Jaina shivered at the severity of the sound.

She shut her eyes and leaned against the ice, letting it cool her nerves while she thought of a solution to this mess.

“Azzanadra!”

“Brother! The muspah!”

“I see it. Akthanakos, hold your fire for a moment.”

“But Brother, it’s been attacking us and chasing Jaina!”

“I know. It’s chased her all the way from the wisp colony south of Sophanem.”

“Then why are we to hold fire?!?”

“We are not. Not for long, at least. Take aim, and _do not_ miss.”

Hearing Azzanadra’s latest snarl, Jaina finally peeked around the ice wall to see him, Wahisietel, and Akthanakos facing down the muspah.

Teeth gnashed, bladed arms slicing deftly through the air.

Ice, fire, and strange verdant energy sparked into existence, begging to be loosed.

_No time left for thinking - It’s now or never!_

Jaina leapt out from behind the wall, barrelling toward the stand-off.

As energy arced through the air, she forced a curse from her throat.

_“Arceto impetum magorum!”_

The Infernal words seemed to crystallize the air before her as she jumped in front of the muspah.

Magic ricocheted in all directions.

Sand was sent flying by the resulting entropy.

The air cleared slowly, revealing patches of frozen and melted sand scattered around the scene. 

“Stop it...all of you…” Jaina huffed, out of breath. Wheezing, she gestured to the still snarling muspah behind her. “Summoning...familiar. Not...not dangerous.” Ignoring Azzanadra’s protests, she turned and scooped the muspah into her arms, petting it on the head. “See?”

The muspah rumbled happily, its inclination for violence once again dormant.

It was a while before anyone moved.

Wahisietel was the first to back out of his battle stance and approach. Gingerly, he peered at the muspah as Jaina set it back down onto the sand, still trembling slightly.

“A summoning familiar? That...that would explain why it kept following you.” Suddenly, his fear seemed to dissipate, and he began to circle the muspah, examining it as if it were a museum specimen on exhibit. A museum specimen that proceeded to swipe threateningly at his ankles. “So, our legends are true, I assume? No doubt you would have to collect ingredients for a summoning pouch from an actual muspah…”

“I did, yes.” With that, she shuffled over to Azzanadra and Akthanakos, hugging the former, and giving the latter a reassuring pat on the arm.

“You mentioned facing muspah on Freneskae,” Azzanadra mumbled shakily, looping an arm around her shoulders protectively. She hugged him again and buried her face in his robes, feeling relief and calm washing over the both of them. “I thought for a moment that one had followed you back through the World Gate...”

“Is this about how large they were?” Wahisietel asked as he sidestepped out of the way of the muspah familiar’s continued assault on his boots. 

“No.” Jaina disengaged from Azzanadra’s arms and gestured with her hands, gauging the size of the far more frightening muspah on Freneskae from memory. “More like this.”

Azzanadra let out a low, rattling sigh and placed a hand to his forehead as if to steady himself.

Akthanakos paled, shaking his head frantically as if trying to dispel the image from his mind.

Wahisietel, however, hummed in approval, never taking his eyes off the familiar.

“Fascinating…”

The muspah suddenly stopped slashing at his ankles and peered upward, its pincers clicking together.

“So, a dream that shows no fear when confronted with a nightmare...you are equally fascinating, sir.”

“Aha! So, you speak in more than just single-word threats!” Wahisietel sat cross-legged on the sand in front of the muspah, taking a pad and a bit of charcoal from his satchel. “Tell me, what is the nature of your kin’s existence? Are you fully biological creatures, or are you more thaumaturgical?”

“We are nightmares made manifest. What is a nightmare made of?”

“Brain waves, strictly speaking, but seeing as you and I come from the same progenitor, there may be something more to it…”

As Akthanakos teleported off, mumbling some words of farewell, Jaina and Azzanadra sat on the sand and watched the scene before them unfold.

The air was soon filled with intellectualism and the scratching of charcoal against papyrus, the chaos from before seemingly forgotten.

_Quite the conversation, indeed..._


End file.
